Ebola: School Owners, FG On Collision Course

Private school owners in Lagos State
and the Federal Government may
clash over the latter’s order directing
all primary and secondary schools in
the country to resume on October 13,
2014, instead of the anticipated
September 15.


The school owners, under the umbrella
of the National Association of
Proprietors of Private Schools, believe
that the directive is unnecessary and
should not be considered as part of the
measures to prevent the spread of
Ebola virus in the country.
They expressed their feeling at a
sensitisation programme on Ebola
held on Thursday at Victory Grammar
School, Ikeja, Lagos.
The Minister of Education, Mallam
Ibrahim Shekarau, had announced the
resumption date after a meeting with
the 36 state commissioners of
education on Tuesday in Abuja
But speaking at the sensitisation
programme, the Lagos State President
of the National Association of
Proprietors of Private Schools, Mr.
Yomi Otubela, said, “We have sent our
appeal to the Federal Government
through the Lagos State Special
Adviser on Public Health informing it
that if religious organisations and
other places are left open, these
children could as well contract the
virus there.
“If markets that have more crowd than
what we have in schools are not
asked to close down, then we wonder
why the government will not allow us
put preventive measures in place and
allow these children return to school.
School is supposed to be a place of
knowledge and we are to educate and
expose them to the knowledge on
what they need to know to prevent the
spread of the virus, not keeping them
out of schools and keeping them
ignorant of what is happening.”
But the Special Adviser to the Lagos
State Government on Public Health,
Dr. Yewande Adeshina, disagreed with
the school owners, asking them to
abide by the Federal Government’s
directive.
She also asked them not to place
priority on their financial wellbeing
over the physical wellbeing of the
school children.
The founder of Supreme Educational
Foundation Schools, Mrs. Adenike
Adamolekun, also said the directive by
the Federal Government was
senseless.
She said, “Just as we are praising the
Federal Government for being
proactive in containing the Ebola virus,
we are also condemning them on this
one. It does not make sense at all.
Even if they had any doubt, what they
needed to have done was to have put
together some precautions and extend
it to all schools, ensuring that all
schools abide by them.
“Shutting the schools for a whole
month, considering the fact they will be
shut down next year again because of
elections, is a bad idea. Moreover,
parents do not know what to do with
those kids. I think this is an
unnecessary approach to the issue.”
A school proprietress, Dr. Maggie Ibru,
stated that what the Federal
Government could have done was to
provide hand sanitisers in all private
and public schools in the country.
She said it was in the capability of the
Federal Government to provide hand
sanitisers and increase the level of
sanitisation in all schools in the
country.
She said, “No, the Federal Government
got it wrong on this one because this
will not stop the students from
participating in international
examinations. What the government
should have done is to supply all
schools with hand sanitisers, both
private and public, because who attend
the private schools too are Nigerians.
“They should allow the children to go
back to school. What to do is simple:
the Federal Government could have
increased the sensitisation level on
Ebola prevention in our schools and if
possible, give a directive to all schools
not to allow guests enter their
premises, or rather mandate every
child and visitor be subjected to a test
before entering the school premises.
These are the measures that the
Federal Government should have
taken.”
Meanwhile, inadequate test and
treatment centres for the Ebola Virus
Disease has been identified as one of
the greatest challenges threatening the
government’s efforts to contain the
spread of the deadly virus.
Though four test centres have been set
up in the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital; Centre for Disease Control in
Asokoro, Abuja; University College
Hospital, Ibadan; and the Redeemers
University Laboratory, Kilometer 35
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, doctors,
who spoke with Saturday PUNCH,
flayed the government over what they
called inadequate test and treatment
centres in the country.
They said that adequate test and
treatment centres are very important
to the management of Ebola outbreak
among other measures such as
sufficient isolation facilities and
protective kits for medical personnel.
According to them, it is unheard of for
a country of over 160 million people to
rely on four test centres at a time it is
faced with a deadly disease that has,
in the World Health Organisation’s
estimation, killed 1,552 people in West
Africa.
The Ebola Virus Disease was on July
24, 2014 imported to Nigeria by a 40-
year-old Liberian-American, Patrick
Sawyer.
Shortly after Sawyer died of the
disease on his arrival in Lagos, the
Federal Government quickly rose to
prevent the spread of the virus by
putting in place many measures such
as banning inter-state movement of
corpses. It also promised to establish
nine more test centres across the
nation by September.
The Minster of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi
Chukwu, had also announced the
plans to send mobile laboratories to
Enugu and Plateau states for the
diagnosis of the virus following fears
that some people might have
contracted the disease in the two
states.
President Goodluck Jonathan had
equally announced the release of
N1.9bn Special Intervention Fund for
the management of Ebola.
The President’s Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuban Abati,
had explained that the N1.9bn Ebola
Fund would be used “to further
strengthen on-going steps to contain
the virus such as the establishment of
additional isolation centres, case
management, contact tracing,
deployment of additional personnel,
screening at borders, and the
procurement of required items and
facilities.”
In spite of these measures, a
virologist, Dr. Akinjogunla Olajide, said
the four testing centres for Ebola virus
were not enough for the country with a
population of over 160 million people.
He said each of the 36 states of the
federation should have at least a test
centre to handle emergency related to
the outbreak of a deadly virus such as
Ebola.
Olajide said the need for each state to
have its test centre became necessary
because of the difficulty that would be
involved in transporting the sample of
a suspected Ebola patient from a place
like Cross River State to Lagos State
as a result of the distance between the
two states.
The virologist also said that the four
test centres currently available in the
country lacked necessary facilities.
Olajide said, “Containing the spread of
Ebola virus requires specially trained
personnel. The four centres we have in
Nigeria today may boast of qualified
personnel, but the major challenge that
may hinder their effectiveness is
inadequate facilities.”
He expressed the fear that there may
be an outbreak of the Ebola disease in
Port Harcourt in the next few days
following the death in Port Harcourt of
a doctor who treated a diplomat who
contracted Ebola from Sawyer, the
index case.
According to him, the victim must
have interacted with many people
before he succumbed to the disease.
Chukwu, the Health Minister had on
Wednesday confirmed that the
diplomat had contracted the virus, and
that the Ebola virus was responsible
for killing the late doctor.
He said, “A man who works for
ECOWAS, a primary contact of the
index case, evaded surveillance and
travelled to Port Harcourt. He became
ill and he went to a hospital in Port
Harcourt for treatment.
“Although he recovered, the doctor
who treated him died last week. The
widow of the doctor alerted us and we
investigated the case. It is now
confirmed that the doctor died of
Ebola. His widow has been put under
quarantine.
“The ECOWAS staff member is also
under quarantine. There is evidence
that he had the virus but might have
recovered. We cannot rule out the
option that he still has the virus.”
The minister said 70 people were
under surveillance in Port Harcourt.
The latest development brings the total
number of Ebola cases in Nigeria to 15
from the 13 announced by the health
minister on Monday.
The President, Nigerian Medical
Association, Dr. Kayode Obembe, also
believes that the four centres are not
enough for the country with its huge
population. He said that the centres
were poorly equipped.
According to him, each state of the
federation should have at least a test
centre for effective prevention of the
spread of the Ebola virus.
Obembe, who claimed that the Federal
Government has the capacity to
contain the spread of the Ebola virus,
however, urged it to embark on
rigorous training and re-training of
health workers and volunteers involved
in managing the centres.
Another medical practitioner, Dr.
Rotimi Adesanya, said the treatment of
the Ebola disease involves a lot of
financial resources, special training,
kits and handling of the facilities,
which may be the reason the
government could not dabble into
making the facility available at every
nook and cranny of the country. He
said, “If the government makes it
available everywhere, it may expose
the populace to the disease, but the
government can at least have
equipped treatment centres that have
the capacity of combating the disease.
However, the focus should be more on
treatment centres, not testing centres,
and the truth is that we don’t have
adequate treatment centres across the
country. “However, I think every state
should have about three treatment
centres, which could be one per
senatorial zone and about one or two
testing centres in each state, because
doing the test everywhere may lead to
spreading the virus due to
misplacement or any other thing.
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